


glorious mud

by fishpoets



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Kissing in the Rain, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28460946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishpoets/pseuds/fishpoets
Summary: Jesse just about manages to beat the storm home.
Relationships: Jesse McCree/Hanzo Shimada
Comments: 4
Kudos: 94





	glorious mud

**Author's Note:**

> this was intended to be a little coda to a longer ATLA au, but frankly i'm never gonna write that fic and i realised i haven't posted *any* mchanzo this past year, which feels weird and vaguely sacrilegious, so i'm throwing this up here without its context. 
> 
> anyway, Happy New Year! let's hope 2021 is kinder to us all ♥

“Hey there, stranger.”

The broad-shouldered figure in the wide conical hat paused a moment, head tilted just barely toward Jesse, then continued weaving mends into the strands of netting draped across his lap.

“So.” His voice was cool and dark. “You have returned.”

“Said I would, didn't I?”

“Hm.”

The rain pattered down. It had long seeped into Jesse's clothing, found weakpoints to finger its way down to linger chill and damp against his skin. Jesse's cloak was lightweight wool, his own hat designed to protect from the sun; neither was proving much of a match against a sudden summer squall.

The weather didn't touch Hanzo. The rain parted neatly over his head, ignoring the pull of gravity to fall in a wide arc around him. The small wooden jetty where Hanzo sat with his nets was enviably dry.

For him this kinda talent was effortless. A task performed with little need of thought or concentration. The sight and the knowledge of it made pride light a hearth fire in Jesse's chest, as it always did; curled up warm beside the flames and started to purr.

It hadn't always been this way, after all. Effortless. Not for this man.

Jesse kept his admiring turn of mind to himself. Hanzo could be a damn pricklepuss about these things – the man had a hard time believing this particular skillset of his to be a matter worthy of anyone's pride, let alone his own. No matter how long or how hard he'd worked to achieve it.

Well, Jesse could carry that pride good enough for the both of them. He didn't mind. Weren't like it was a burden.

The rain showed no sign of letting up. Resigning himself to a soggy seat for the rest of his journey, he resettled his hat and stepped out from under the shelter of the trees. He picked his way gingerly down the sludgy slope of the riverbank, hardening the mud beneath each footfall so he didn't slip and tumble on his ass or lose a boot to the suckling silt.

The jetty creaked under his heels. He came up behind Hanzo's shoulder and crouched beside him, just beyond the narrow sheet of displaced rain which came down like a veil between them.

He wiggled his fingertips through the bubble into the dry space beyond. “This's a nice lil' thing you got goin' here,” he said. “Any chance I could get in on it with you?” 

Hanzo glanced at him from the corner of one narrowed amber eye. “It was your own choice to travel during monsoon season," he replied, perfectly dour. "If you are too wet, you have only yourself to blame.”

“Aw, hey now, don't be like that,” Jesse pouted. “I meant to get on the road sooner, but... well, one thing led to another. You know how it goes.”

A scoff. “How it goes for _you_ , yes, I do know. Regrettably.”

“It's real good to see you.” Jesse told him, playing up the sugar in his voice. All the sweeter for being true.

“Hn.” Hanzo's hands were strong and broad, with thick, sturdy fingers that had grown used to hard work yet were still deft with the ropes, moved with an innate flowing grace. Jesse did so like to watch them work. “You took your time. I was starting to think you would not come.”

“Said I would.”

“Saying is easy. You say many things.”

“And most of 'em I mean. At least, I do when I'm sayin' them to you.”

For a moment Hanzo's hands paused on the netting. Then he tightened the last knot with a decisive tug and gathered it all up. He said nothing, didn't even turn to give Jesse a glance – but he did reach out, set a warm palm on Jesse's chest and lightly pressed in. Drawing the hand away pulled with it a trail of water clear as crystal, a sinuous ribbon that rippled and danced between their bodies like a liquid snake.

With a small gesture he extended his arm and guided the ribbon of water down into the river.

Jesse rolled his shoulders and sighed in relief. With the literal cold weight of the water lifted off him and no longer sticking his clothes to his skin he was instantly leagues warmer and more comfortable. And only now, newly dried and not getting any wetter, did he notice Hanzo had wordlessly extended the rain-proof bubble over him, too. He looked up. It was like how he imagined looking up through the middle of a glass fountain would be; the rivulets of water cascaded steadily around them, cocooning them together from the outside world.

He smiled and edged closer. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

Hanzo hummed. He finished bundling his nets and leaned over the side of his small boat, stowing them with brisk, economic motions. “Have you eaten?” he asked.

“Had a good breakfast this morning. But I could eat, yeah. 'Specially if you're offering.” With Hanzo finished with his task Jesse dared to touch. He ran his palm down the stretch of Hanzo's flank, the muscle tense as it held him bent forward; ran over the sturdy sweep of his hip, followed the curve down to the gentle swell of ass and muscular thigh. “More hungry for some things than others,” he murmured.

Hanzo snorted. His face was turned away, but no amount of rain could disguise the tell-tale rounded rise to the elegant line of his cheek. Under the fall of his hair Jesse would bet the shell of Hanzo's ear was flushed pink.

He always did hide it away at first. Took a while for his walls to come down again, brick by careful brick, whenever they had cause to spend some time apart. And it'd been a longer time apart than the others previous, this time around. The longest time spent apart since they'd met.

There was some part of Hanzo that expected to be abandoned, whenever Jesse's hands and feet caught an itch and he wandered off into the wilds to scratch it. He'd been taught to expect disappointment, and resigned himself preemptively to once more find himself alone. It weren't a pleasant thing to think about. Made Jesse's heart hurt, to be truthful. Made him want to sail over the ocean to the islands of the Fire Nation and give a certain family of lightning benders a heavy helping of his mind.

Didn't stop him leaving, though. Jesse took no joy in their separations, but he couldn't pretend to be anything other than the man he was – and he wouldn't insult Hanzo by trying. And who knew – maybe next time would be the one he'd convince Hanzo to go along with him.

Here's to hoping.

In the meantime, he would go, be away a few weeks, and then return. It didn't matter to him how long it took to win himself back his welcome. Each time he pressed on either way. He thought of lashing rain and lightning storms, eyes like gold ore welling up with anguished tears, a rough palm against his own, and he couldn't not.

And Hanzo had always rewarded his faith. Always assured his place, in the end. Just took a little while for him to thaw – and each time Jesse returned, the thawing came a little faster. A little easier.

Good thing Jesse could be patient, for the things that were important.

Hanzo's brows were furrowed and stern, but when he glanced at Jesse his eyes held hidden embers. He touched Jesse's hand, holding it against himself for a brief second before smacking it away.

“Hurry up and get in the boat, then,” he chivvied. “Or I'll be leaving without you.”

* * *

Particles of silt swirled in Jesse's earthsense, stirred by the boat as it propelled them upstream against the current. As he told his tale, filling Hanzo in on his adventures, he dipped his fingertips lazily into the water, feeling the forceful push of it, the drag.

“So there I am, just sittin' and mindin' my own business, enjoying a frankly dee-licious bowl of spicy noodles, and these fellas come swaggering in and start makin' a ruckus. Interruptin' my hard-earned meal. Well, that's damn rude, is what it is! So o'course when they start wavin' their weapons around I feel inclined to step in and put them straight--”

“You mean you decided to intervene, and when the authorities arrived, you were held accountable even though you were not the one at fault.”

“How'd you guess?”

“This seems to happen to you often,” Hanzo said, droll.

“Ha! Guess it does, at that.”

“Have you ever considered _not_ interfering with affairs that do not concern you?”

“Nah. Keeps life exciting, don't it? 'Sides, if I kept my nose where it belonged, we'd've never gotten to know each other, would we? Seems a shame.”

Hanzo hummed. He was faced away, his gaze fixed on guiding the boat upriver, but he'd taken off his hat and his hair was blown back by the breeze; the rims of his ears were visible, and they were deep pink.

Jesse grinned. “Anyway, that's not even the interesting part. There I was, leadin' the city guards around on a wild platypus-goose chase, when I dart around a corner and bump right into someone. You'll never guess who.”

“Hm?”

“Go on, guess.”

“The Avatar,” Hanzo said dryly.

“Hah, he wishes! No, it was your brother.”

Hanzo stiffened from his elegant sprawl at the tiller. The boat slowed. Caught by the current, it began to slowly twirl round in the middle of the river.

“My brother...?” Hanzo echoed, eyes wide. His hands dropped to grip his knees. “What – what is Genji doing in the Earth Kingdom?”

“Still travelling around with that monk of his. The real cheerful fella, you remember.”

“Zenyatta?”

“That's the one.” Jesse eyed the tense little frown on Hanzo's face, tightening his eyes and creasing his brow, and tried to judge whether he was in the mood to hear this. The subject of Hanzo's family was volatile enough it could go either way. “He, ah. He said he wanted to come visit you again sometime soon.”

Hanzo took a long, deep breath. Worked his jaw, then nodded. He draped one muscular arm back over the side of the boat and coaxed the rushing waters to straighten out the boat again. Jesse breathed a silent sigh of relief as the water swelled beneath them, sending them onwards upriver once more.

“After the rains, then,” Hanzo mused. “Genji is not foolish enough to travel across the country at the onset of monsoon season. Unlike another man of my acquaintance I could name.”

He said this with an adorably withering side-eye in Jesse's direction. Jesse grinned his most crooked, roguish grin and winked back at him. “Sounds like the kinda man who leaves an impression,” he quipped.

“Memorable, yes, I will not deny that.”

“Ah.” Jesse nodded sagely. “I get it. He's got a big cock.”

Hanzo scoffed. “His only redeeming feature.”

“Oof, honey, that's cold!”

Hanzo shook his head. “Childish,” he muttered, but his ears were pink and that was definitely a smile twitching his beard, lifting the corners of his pouting lips.

Before long another dock appeared from the mist on the far bank. Hanzo guided the boat towards it, pulling up to the wooden jetty embedded in the stone. Hanzo must have been keeping himself busy with repairs since Jesse was here last – the couple of boards that had been warping have been replaced, and the whole jetty had a fresh coat of waterproofing, newly tarred and glistening under the rain.

The rain was coming down heavier now, a steady stream splitting and sloshing above their heads. A rumble of thunder menaced in the distance, out the way of the far-off mountains. It was building to be a monster of a storm.

By the time it hit later that night, Jesse would be tucked up warm and snug in his own bed, next to his man. The wind could howl and the rain lash down its fury, all the elements battering the world outside, and they would remain preoccupied only with each other. None of it would touch them.

Hanzo had been holding the barrier for both of them a good long while now, on top of steering the boat. He must've been getting tired.

Jesse would make sure he ate, make sure he rested; he'd wear him out good and proper, and come morning persuade him to sleep in past the rising of the sun no matter what protests he made. His family might be full of firebenders, true, but that didn't mean Hanzo had to live like one, always to the diktats of something or someone other than himself. Not anymore.

Maybe, if Jesse was real charming, real lucky, he'd manage to keep Hanzo in bed all day.

He hadn't been lying, earlier. He really had missed him.

He took the hand Hanzo offered him, let him pull him out the boat. The sense of the Earth leapt to greet him as they stepped ashore on to lovely, steady, dependable rock.

He helped Hanzo pull the boat out of the water too, hoisted it down the jetty to the small boatshelter at the side of the dock. He'd only get scolded if he tried to help with the ropes and nets so he stood aside and watched Hanzo strap the boat down securely and cover it over.

Hanzo still wore his clothes in the Fire Nation style despite the years since he'd lived there; belts and cloth wrapped around his waist, cinched tight. A waist solid with muscle – working muscle, too, built for strength rather than decoration, but with him all trussed up he looked deceptively trim and slender compared to the impressive breadth of his shoulders and chest and the sturdy thickness of his thighs. Like he was made for the span of Jesse's grip.

Jesse wasn't much of a poet, but he could write verses for that waist, for those shoulders. Whisper lines between the blades, trace them with lips and tongue into the contours of his neck when they lay joined and curled together, as Hanzo melted to a puddle beneath him. Above him. Anywhere.

The Hanzo outside his head was frowning at him, one brow raised. Eyes narrow.

“What is that smile for?”

Suspicious bastard. Jesse was washed over with a wave of fondness. “Nothin', nothin'. Just admirin' you.”

“Oh?”

“Mm-hm. Feelin' a might bit jealous.”

“Jealous? Of what?”

“Wonderin' about this memorable fella of yours. He handsome? Bet he's real handsome.”

Hanzo huffed. “He does seem to operate under the illusion that his smile can get him out of anything.”

“Gets other people outta their things, too.”

“Is that so.”

“And he must be plenty smart.” Jesse ticked off on his fingers. “And funny, witty, charming… else a discerning gentleman like yourself wouldn't put up with him.”

“It is certainly strange how such intelligence and idiocy can coexist within the same person.”

Jesse grinned, tickled with delight as he was every time Hanzo brought out his claws and played along. “Now 'strange' is just another way of saying 'intriguing'. You should know, being pretty intriguing yourself.”

Hanzo rolled his eyes. He led Jesse across the narrow strip of beach, started the steep climb up the stone steps sunk into the cliffside.

Hanzo's hand was near and empty. Jesse reached to take it. “Lucky, too, to have your attention.” Hanzo paused on the step above him. Looked down, puzzled. Jesse plucked off his hat and held it to his chest, let the humor drop from his voice, leaving only the sincerity. “Damn lucky. I hope he knows. Somethin' tells me he does.”

Hanzo's eyes widened before they skittered away across the cut of the river through the forest. “Is that what you believe,” he muttered, after a heavyweight pause. He cleared his throat.

Jesse shrugged. “Just a hunch.”

Those ears were pink again. Hanzo shifted. He squeezed Jesse's hand, and only let go because the steps were too narrow to traverse side-by-side. 

Jesse felt light as an airbender. Each step the earth recognized and stirred to greet him. This close to the house he could feel the familiar shape of the packed foundations he'd constructed himself, when Hanzo, nervous and dancing wholly unlike himself around the subject, had started making noise about needing more room in his old hut – and Jesse had laid down the new floor, made the ground steady and stable beneath Hanzo's home, helped Hanzo chop wood and set stone, build walls and a roof.

And he'd come to admit to himself why he'd remained in one place for so long, with this strange, tight-lipped, lonely Fire Nation waterbender who had exiled himself to the Earth Kingdom. And Hanzo had come to admit why he'd let him stay. And it wasn't because of his cock.

He reached the top of the steps and stopped, hands propped on his hips, to catch his breath.

Hanzo was standing a few paces off, across the muddy yard in front of the house, smiling at him.

There was something devious about that smile. Something that poked at Jesse's trickster instincts even as it tugged at his loins.

He opened his mouth to ask.

One little twitch of Hanzo's hand, a single flick of his lovely fingers, and just like that the deluge of water that had been parting neatly around Jesse came crashing right down upon his bare head.

He yelped and spluttered, scrubbed the sopping wet hair out of his face and gaped at Hanzo, who was smirking wide and smug.

Right.

It was less work than a reflex to bend wet mud from the puddles and flick it back.

Jesse had damn good aim.

He would've sacrificed much more than clean clothes for the look of unbridled shock on Hanzo's stupid gorgeous face. Even better when it hardened into determination. The fierce heat in his narrowed eyes made Jesse shiver in giddy anticipation. 

Hanzo marched back across the yard and pounced. Jesse wasn't quick enough to dodge; didn't really want to. He put up a token resistance as Hanzo tackled him down into the mud.

He forgot the cold. The rain drenched them in a second, mud getting all over both of them as they wrestled and grabbed at each other. Hanzo pinned Jesse on his back, straddled his waist between thighs with a grip like iron. Mud was smeared across his face, dripped in his loose-falling hair. They'd both lost their hats. Wild as the storm, Hanzo pushed him down against the cushion of the ground, his teeth bared, half snarl, half feral grin. Eyes shining bright as he lorded over him.

Jesse's heart stuttered and squeezed.

He lay there frozen as prey for a moment that hung in the air, the held-breath between lightning strike and thunder. Then Hanzo dropped his head. He slid off Jesse's waist, to his knees in the mud, threw his head back and laughed aloud.

Jesse propped himself up on his elbows. Hanzo's chest heaved as his outburst of mirth pittered away. His eyes were crinkled. His hair was sodden, dark clumps clinging to his neck. Jesse reached up, brushed it back, cupped his cheek; Hanzo leant into his palm. The rain washed down, ran trails in the mud on Hanzo's face, pooled in the dimple of his upturned lip.

Jesse sat up. Drew Hanzo in.

Their beards caught and dragged as he slotted them together. Hanzo's lips were cool; inside them his mouth was slick and sleek and hot. He tasted of mud.

That was alright. Jesse didn't mind. Pretty appropriate, all things considered; that their kiss should taste of water and earth mixed together until they could no longer be separated.

And there he went thinking up poetry again.

Hanzo pulled back with a soft suck and another breathless bubble of a laugh. He tightened the grip he had in Jesse's hair, both his hands cupping his skull, and studied him intently. “You need to bathe,” he declared.

Jesse grinned. Ah – _there_ was his welcome home. “And whose fault is that?” he asked, as Hanzo tweaked the end of his nose and got to his feet. “Hey, your bath's big enough for two, right? Scrub your back if you scrub mine?”

Hanzo smiled. He reached down a hand to help Jesse up too, kept hold of it as they traipsed across the yard together to the house they'd built; pulled Jesse in out of the storm and shut the door.


End file.
